The Cook Islands Coach Tony Iro has named a strong squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifier against South Africa in Sydney.

Venue: Ringrose Park, Wentworthville, NSW, Australia

Kick-off time: 7pm

Date: Friday 21st June 2019

The Cook Islands Coach Tony Iro has named a strong squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifier against South Africa in Sydney.

The squad is made up of players from the domestic, NRL, NSW and QLD Intrust Cup competitions.

The Kukis will be looking to progress to the next stage where they take on the USA for the final place in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.

The last World Cup the Cook Islands played in was 2013. The Cooks finished 2nd in Pool D. In their opening match they lost to the USA 32 -20. In their second fixture they narrowly went down to Tonga 22 -16. The last game Kukis notched up their only win of the tournament defeating Wales 28 - 24.

The last Rugby League World Cup South Africa played in was back in 2000. The Rhinos went through the tournament losing all their three Pool games in France. (Tonga 66 - South Africa 18, Papua New Guinea 16 - South Africa 0, France 56 - South Africa 6). Since then South Africa have struggled to qualify and are hoping to turn that around against the Cooks.

South African head coach Jon Wilson has also named the Rhinos squad for the World Cup Qualifier. The Rhinos will field players from the domestic competition along with players with South African heritage playing throughout Australia.

In 2018 South Africa played internationals on Australia soil against Malta and Italy to build the team before the upcoming World Cup qualifier. The South African’s have given themselves every chance of wining against the Cook Islands and progressing through to the last qualifying match against the USA.